European Union, Internet service providers

Big Brother sees Internet as up for grabs

By Judi McLeod

Friday, October 20, 2006

The European Union--Big Brother, Europe style--is making a move to kill the Internet.

"The latest move to kill off online freedom and the spread of information comes in the form of proposed EU legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video, whether that be a hard hitting political documentary film or your friends goofing around with diet coke and Mentos." (Alex Jones Infowars, Oct. 20,2006).

"Personal websites would have to be licensed as a "television-like service". Once again the reasoning behind such legislation is said to be in order to set minimum standards on areas such as hate speech and the protection of children."

The European Kill the Net move coincides with FBI Director Robert Mueller's call on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement coming to Washington next year.

"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

If only the FBI could catch more terrorists like the ever-elusive Adnan el Shukrijumah who keeps slipping their dragnet and bring to justice the sexual predators taking children.

Detractors are already calling for the FBI and Company to go after the already "known" pedophiles, druglords and terrorists among America's elected politicians.

They say that EU intervention will do nothing to protect children or prevent hate speech.

"Unless you judge protecting children to be denying them access to anything that is not government regulated or you assume hate speech to be the criticism of government actions and policy," according to Alex Jones.

While the activists are first off the mark in fighting to keep the Internet safe from government intervention, messing with the well-trodden Information Highway of the Masses is bound to reverberate from every corner of the Global Village.

Politics has already taken a huge toll on average Internet users in countries like China, where people continue to be imprisoned all for posting anti-government messages online.

Cutting the ease with which the information can be disseminated through the worldwide web is bound to create a revolution for any government that dares to try it.

"We have previously highlighted the trouble we have had with censorship from Google Video who reset viewing totals for Terror Storm from hundreds of thousands of views on several different video versions back down to zero for each one," says Jones. "This seemingly stalled the viral spread of the film for a while.

"However, the proposed EU legislation dwarfs any Google censorship as it would kill off Video/You Tube as a project before it even started."

Politics on the Internet has protected former President Bill Clinton from having his record on catching international terrorists thrown onto the Net and banned pundit Michelle Malkin from YouTube.

As Jones points out, "the latest proposed directive is another in a long line of draconian legislative procedures that seek to totally centralize and regulate the spread of information and ideas.

"Anyone in Europe can already be arrested and possibly extradited under the European arrest warrant, which passed into law in 2002. This supercedes national law and means that anyone could be arrested for expressing an opinion deemed to be illegal in another EU country."

No facet of society would be free in the exchange of ideas, including the fairytale world children have traditionally been nurtured on. The BBC has reported that under such laws people who distribute stories about fictional children's hero Biggies or the Old Testament could be criminalized under the guise of anti-racism legislation.

Powerbrokers on both sides of the ocean now see the Internet as a commodity up for grabs. It has so far survived all attempts by the EU's twin sister, the United Nations.

The Internet has even survived Apple adviser and Google board member Al Gore, who has boasted of being its main architect.

Meanwhile, if the ambitious EU gets its way, the main advantage of the Net will be lost for life's long suffering little people: More politicians are finding out that if there is one place you can't hide from it's the Internet.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com

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